THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME

How often does James Joyce think about the Roman Empire?

Topics in this episode include Leopold Bloom bullied by children and adults, stealing upon larks, the Oval, The Rose of Castille, Lenehan’s riddle unfulfilled, the Roman Empire as an analogue to the British Empire, puns, cloacae, the origin of the phrase “cloacal obsession,” H.G. Wells’ review of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, MacHugh’s anti-imperial oratory, Stephen Dedalus’ favorite smells, “The Holy Office,” the British love of the watercloset, colonialist civilizing and British conquest, Sir John Harington and the first flush toilet, Ajax and a jakes, François Rabelais, Edward Said, and Dermot’s impression of H.G. Wells.

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A Cloacal Obsession

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